Israeli Violence Spills: More Than Blood

Israeli troops shot dead another young Palestinian man in what the occupation forces is calling reprisal for a molitov attack near the West Bank city of Ramallah.

The army said he was in a group of three people in Kufr Malik village, one of whom was carrying a firebomb. Another Palestinian man died overnight after being critically wounded in a clash near a Jewish settlement.
The shooting happened during a protest about another killing on Tuesday of a teenager - also an alleged firebomber.

In the latest incident, Aziz Beerat, 20, was killed when Israeli soldiers in a jeep opened fire in Kufr Malik village, north-east of Ramallah, Palestinian emergency services said. Another man was in a serious condition in hospital after being shot in the back.

The Israeli military said troops saw the silhouettes of three Palestinians preparing to throw petrol bombs and that the men ignored an order to surrender. This account is eerily similar to accounts given by while police officers that shoot dead children in the inner cities of the United States.

The three deaths prompted Palestinian protests against what they described as an alarming escalation of unprovoked violence by both settlers and the Israeli Offensive Forces.

One Palestinian official remarked that "It looks as if the Israeli army has received instructions to carry out an escalation in the Palestinian territories," said negotiator Saeb Erekat, in comments reported by AFP news agency.

In the wake of Ehud Olmert's demise and the ensuing uncertainty cause by the political vacuum an emergent resurgence of a blend of violence and lawlessness among the settlers and the forces that protect them in the occupied territories jas gripped Israel. Israel is a midst of a pronounced social exhibition of its culture of violence. There is also, a clear connection between the upsurge in violence perpetrated by settlers against Palestinians in the territories, particularly in the northern West Bank, and the reemergence of Israeli-on-Israeli acts of violence inside the Green Line, Israel's pre-1967 borders.

The chaotic peak marks a turning point of great significance. The longstanding state sanctioned wanton violence perpetrated on Palestinians in the occupied territories is the result of a culture of illegality - the dispossession and non-stop oppression of an entire people for over 60 years - which was allowed, indeed encouraged to flourish for a long time, violence builds upon itself and becomes an entity unto itself. The Settlers and the army begins to think they are invincible to any repercussions from the apparatus of the state, let alone their innocent victims.

The settlers are also feeling weakened by the increasing pressure of the international community on Israel to evacuate settlements and effectuate a final peace. In addition, the US - her greatest defender - and Israel are both in a transition to new administrations. The trepidation caused by this vacuum is forcing the hand of these reactionary forces in Israel so that they try to take control of the situation - through the means of more violence. Their actions try simultaneously, impress and warn the new administrations as well as the international protesters to show what they are capable of doing - that nothing will change in Israel, that they are in control.

Ehud Olmert noticed the riotous tide and noted that an evil wind of extremism, of hatred, of malice, of violence, of lawlessness is blowing through the Israeli public and threatens Israeli democracy - as limited and arbitrary as it may have been.

There has been a change in the tactics of violence used by the settlers and their army. This new phase of settler violence may be described as a pronounced form of Jewish terror. The new approach entails a severe price tag for any move that is considered damaging for the settler movement - naked, extreme and absolute violence.

The novel strategy is to create havoc on the roads, the checkpoints and in nearby Palestinian villages. The logic is that the army, government, and state of Israel will necessarily, support their citizens even in this sinister agenda - they are daring the politicians to stop them - and if the state objects they will know that dismantling any outpost or stopping construction will bear a high price. There has even been talk of civil war by these rabid settlers.

The Olmert administration and its predecessors have taken a laissez-faire attitude toward the settlers' violence and illegality in general as long as it was directed against the Palestinians. The formulation of Israeli's coalition politics also contributes to spoiling the crazed settlers and fomenting the violence and its corollary among the army. Leaders in Israel need to lure multiple parties into government – as Minister Livni is currently, doing – including those sympathetic to the settlers' outlook. This structural constraint hold leaders back from more concrete action – lest we forget Rabin, even when they do muster the wherewithal to take material action they face the likelihood of a fatal bullet from the gun of an overzealous Zionist assassin.

Fact of the matter is, the occupation has been rotting away at Israeli society for decades. The terrible violence in the illegally, held territories has also spilled over the Green Line. This was inevitable. A society, which features different standards and laws for different people cannot exist without affecting all of society. Israel must seek justice and extend reparations for its own survival.

They have built a de facto apartheid system. There is no hope for future generations of Israelis - although Zionists are always quick to point out the decrepit state of Palestinians culture. however theirs is spiralling downward too.

On Wednesday, 21-year-old Muhammad Rahami was fatally wounded during a protest near Jalazun refugee camp. Israeli police said Palestinians had thrown rocks at an army post. The protest followed the funeral of Abdul Qadir Zeit, 17, killed by troops late on Tuesday near the Beit-El settlement, which is adjacent to Jalazun, deep in the West Bank beyond the barrier Israel is building in and around the territory. The army said he had been carrying a petrol bomb.

BBC accounts of interviews with local residents said the teenager was killed while walking alone on a road that passes the settlement on the way to the camp - there was no firebomb. They said youths do sometimes throw rocks at passing cars belonging to Israeli settlers, but Abdul Qadir Zeit had never participated. They reiterated that no firebombs had been thrown in recent days.

Israel has settled about 450,000 of its citizens in the West Bank and East Jerusalem since it occupied the areas in 1967. Settlements, which are heavily guarded by the Israeli army, are considered illegal under international law, though Israel disputes this.

Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) killed 5 Palestinian citizens, wounded 20 including 5 children, conducted 20 attacks in the West Bank and arrested 40 Palestinians, in the past week. The United Nations has reported 222 attacks by Jewish colonizers during the last six months.

IOF imposed a comprehensive closure on the Palestinian Territory for the Jewish Succot. They also established a Jewish synagogue on Arab land in East Jerusalem. While continuing colonial activities in the West Bank, Jewish colonizers have continued to attacks Palestinian citizens and their property.